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So You Think You Can Dance: Winning surprised Chehon Wespi-Tschopp and Eliana Girard

Ballet dancers Chehon Wespi-Tschopp and Eliana Girard were named the favourite dancers of Season 9 of So You Think You Can Dance on Sept. 18. (ADAM ROSE / FOX)

By Debra YeoToronto Star

Thu., Sept. 20, 2012

Chehon Wespi-Tschopp and Eliana Girard are both ballet dancers and they both won So You Think You Can Dance on Tuesday night.

There’s one other thing they have in common: their admiration of Canadian choreographer Stacey Tookey.

Asked in a conference call on Wednesday to name their favourite choreographer out of the dozen or so they worked with on the show, they both named Edmonton-born Tookey.

“She’s just a beautiful person and she’s a one of a kind choreographer,” said Girard, 21, from West Palm Beach, Fla. “You want to work for her and you want to work hard because she brings it out of you.”

Wespi-Tschopp said Tookey helped him to believe in himself. She was “the one person who has probably helped me turn myself around on this show ... She truly kind of saw me as the person who I am and didn’t just assume who I would be by my physique,” said Wespi-Tschopp, 23, who’s U.S.-born but has been living in Zurich, Switzerland.

Both dancers hope to perform favourite Tookey routines during the So You Think You Can Dance top 10 tour, which hits Toronto’s Sony Centre on Nov. 7.

Both also said they didn’t expect to win on Tuesday.

For the first time, the reality competition named a favourite male and favourite female dancer.

The runners-up were jazz dancer Tiffany Maher, 19, of Plantation, Fla., and Cyrus Spencer, 22, of Atlanta, Ga., who specializes in a style of hip hop known as animation.

Neither Maher or Spencer had ever been voted into the bottom during the Season 9 run.

“I absolutely thought Tiffany was going to win,” said Girard. “I think she’s absolutely beautiful and such an amazing person.”

Likewise, Wespi-Tschopp expected the victory to be Spencer’s.

“I didn’t have anything prepared to really say or do, and I didn’t know how to act” when his name was read by host Cat Deeley, Wespi-Tschopp said.

“I was hoping Cat didn’t by accident say the wrong name or something.”

Girard was paired with Spencer early in the competition and she admitted that the choreography had to be “watered down” because of Spencer’s lack of dance training.

“Cyrus is so sweet and he is such a hard worker,” Girard said.

“It’s been difficult at points because he doesn’t have the same partnering skills as Chehon, for instance ... It’s been a huge learning experience for me to see someone grow and help them out ... You have to water down the choreography, but I think it was so worth it.”

Girard had praise for another Canadian, Edmonton-born, Vancouver-raised Alex Wong, who is also a ballet dancer. He was a competitor on Season 7 of SYTYCD but had to drop out because of an Achilles tendon injury; he returned this season as an all-star partner.

Girard called the “Bang, Bang” routine that she danced with Wong, choreographed by Tookey, a defining moment in the show for her.

“I’m such a huge fan of (Wong’s) to begin with; to be able to have such an experience with him was incredible ... It’s a partnership I really hope will continue after the show.”

Girard and Wespi-Tschopp said it was just coincidence that two ballet dancers won the show, but Girard hopes people see a new side to ballet.

“I think that America’s starting to see how hard it is, the work it takes, how beautiful it is. It is another beautiful genre of dance,” she said.

Both winners take home $100,000 (U.S.).

Girard said she’d use her cash to pay bills, help her mother out and buy a bird. “I’m a huge animal lover.”

Wespi-Tschopp said he’d save as much of his as he could, given the fact that dancers live from contract to contract, and use some to visit his family in Switzerland or fly them to the U.S. for his performances.

Once the SYTYCD tour wraps up, Wespi-Tschopp said he’ll move to L.A. and get into the commercial dance world. And he’d love to pursue choreography, for TV, films and even for future seasons of SYTYCD, as well as study acting.

Girard is hoping an indirect job offer becomes a reality. Judge Nigel Lythgoe told her on Tuesday’s show that former Alvin Ailey star Desmond Richardson of the Complexions Dance Company wants to work with her.

“That’s definitely one of the companies I want to work with,” Girard said.

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